Last Weekend in Atlanta

I've finally gotten the chance to post some pictures from our trip to Atlanta. This was my first time traveling this far with Jenna, but without Randy. Jenna did great. She slept at least 2 hours both directions, and didn't seem bored while she was awake. Here's a picture taken towards the end of the trip, so she was ready to get out of the car by that point. I've also included some collages of pictures taken during the activities of the weekend (click on them to enlarge).

The Empty Highchair

Within the past couple of weeks, Jenna has decided she no longer wants to eat from her high chair. She'd rather eat at the table, even if she barely sits tall enough to see what's on her plate. She's such a big girl, and is becoming so independent!

Wordie

I found this website which creates collages based on the words on websites. I thought it was a cute idea and turned out really cool too! If you'd like to play around with it, the website is www.wordie.net. Very creative!

What a ham!

Jenna and I took a road trip to Atlanta this weekend (I'll post pictures later). She did great in the car, but by the end of it, she was ready to stretch out her legs. So we took a walk before meeting up with Daddy. I thought she did well posing for this picture. Doesn't she look so grown up?

September Sweetie

We went to a wedding this weekend and took some cute pictures of Jenna. She's growing up so fast! Enjoy!

Meet our new friend Fuzzy

This weekend, we took Jenna to Build-A-Bear for the first time. It was quite a cute experience. They start out by giving the child a heart which they tell them to kiss, hold to their forehead, and hold to their ear--so the bear will be full of love, a good thinker, and a good listener. Jenna did well obying all of these instructions immediately. Then they put the heart inside the unstuffed bear and start the stuffing machine. After the bear is sufficiently stuffed, a few quick stitches are made to sew it up, and a friend has been made! We couldn't decide whether it was a boy or a girl, but finally decided it just looked like a boy. His name is Fuzzy.

Jenna listened intently to the instructions.

The stuffing machine.

This is where animals are given their first bath (puffs of air).
Jenna didn't want to give the bear a bath; she kept saying, "no, no!"
and finally grabbed it out.

Jenna and Fuzzy are good buddies now.
Oh, yeah, she got a stroller too, which she loves pushing around!

Snoopy might be feeling a little jealous,
so we're trying to be extra sensitive to his feelings. : )

More Time in the Kitchen

Jenna helped me make peanut blossom cookies this week. she loved unwrapping the Hershey kiss and deciding where on the cookie to place it. The third picture is of her clapping when she finished the last cookie on the plate. Amazingly, she hasn't thought to taste the chocolate yet--when she does, we're in trouble. She hasn't eaten chocolate very often at all, but when she has, she really seems to like it. Enjoy the pictures!




This is another cute thing she's started the past couple of weeks. She'll use both hands to grab our face and just look at us. It's very sweet!

A Cook and Shopper in the Making

Yesterday morning, Jenna helped me make a small fruit salad! I thought to get out the step stool so she could reach the counter without me holding her. She thought she was big stuff! She enjoyed stirring the fruit and sampling it. I affectionately call that "cook's profit"! She's learning the concept early. Yesterday afternoon she also helped me make chex mix too. She's definitely going to be a big kitchen helper.





Last weekend, I tried my hand at making my Papu's fresh apple pie recipe for my Dad's birthday. It was definitely a success so I'm sure Jenna will be helping me with those in the future too. We served it hot with french vanilla ice cream. YUMMM!!!!

Here's a picture of the finished product:

Here's a picture of my teacher:

This weekend, Jenna and I also went shopping twice! Usually, she's pretty anxious to get in and out, wants to get out and walk, etc. However, she was a little angel both trips! I think we have a born shopper on our hands! The second trip was supposed to be a short one, but she fussed so much when I put her back in the carseat that I took her to another store, and she did great for another hour!

What fun we will have with many shopping trips and cooking experiences!

Quack Quack

Mimi and Poppa visited this weekend, so we decided to go to the Great Knoxville Rubber Duck Race on Saturday. Although we didn't win any prizes, we had a great time. The weather was great...cloudy and cooler than a typical August day. Here are some pictures to commemorate the event.

Jenna wore a hat like her Poppa and Daddy

Three generations

That's a lot of ducks!!!

Sweet baby girl

Jenna Reading

Well, to our amazement on Friday night, Jenna began reading!!! "Reading" is a bit of an exaggeration, but we'd never heard her use such inflections. She was reading the book Hand, Hand, Fingers, Toes, and you will just have to see the video to experience it.

Funny Girl

Here are a few pictures of some funny things Jenna has been doing within the past couple of weeks.

1) Every time Randy gets up from where he sits on the couch, Jenna climbs over to be sitting there when he gets back. She loves to see his reaction!


2) She really gets a kick out of a certain section of her Baby Einstein movie. Here's er reaction to it.



3) She LOVES yogurt! She hurries through eating it, then raises it up and says "all gone" so proudly. Little does she know that a quarter of the container is around her mouth and down her stomach!

4) She grabbed Dada's shoes today and started walking around in them. How cute!

In other news, tomorrow is a big day for her at school--she moves up to the Toddler II class! She is in the Toddler I class right now, but with the older kids starting Kindergarten, the rest of the kids get to advance to the next class. Her current teacher said the Toddler I and Toddler II classes are very similar, but the Toddler II class has a little more structured time and they even start working on potty training if we want them to. WOW! She's growing up so fast.

Popsicles

We introduced Jenna to popsicles a couple of weeks ago, and now she eats a whole one by herself! It probably originally felt good on her teething gums, but now I think she just likes the flavor. Smart girl! She'll even ask for one by name ("cockickle") and especially likes to eat it outside, although it's harder for her to finish it with the summer heat. Yesterday we enjoyed them in the cool, air-conditioned house! Enjoy the pictures!

Snoopy

Well, we made it through last week, but it was rough! Jenna cut her last 3 canine teeth, so she was not a happy camper. She woke up screaming several times during several nights, and just could not be soothed. She used to fight us when we tried to apply tooth numbing gel; however, last week, she would look for it and then open her mouth for us to put it on her. She knew it meant relief! How pitiful!

She and Snoopy really bonded though, as we previously posted. He's certainly not as white and clean as he used to be! Here are some cute pictures of them cuddling while she was asleep. Isn't she getting so big?

Girly Girl

For several months, Jenna has enjoyed it when she gets to play with Mommy's makeup while I'm getting ready. She likes scraping her fingernail in my eye shadow then rubbing it on her forehead. Occasionally, she will "help" me put on makeup by putting eye shadow on my nose or lips. I tried to capture her fun this evening.

First, I'll put on my powder with this brush.

Hmm, what color should I wear today?

Next, I'll comb my hair.

It seems like I'm forgetting something...

Jenna's Best Buds

Jenna has become quite attached to her stuffed animal friends recently. Her favorites include Elmo (of course), Floppy the Bunny (who Randy picked out for her before we even knew she'd be a girl), Baby Bunny, Snoopy, and a soft cuddly teddy bear from her Uncle Aaron. They all sleep with her in the crib at night, and she enjoys kissing and hugging them when she wakes up in the morning. Tonight, as she was going to bed, I handed her one after the other until they were in a group hug. She thought that was pretty funny--here's a picture of it:

Earlier this evening, Jenna was having a hard time dealing with being told that she would have to put down Snoopy and Baby Bunny in order to eat her dinner. So, Randy got creative. He went to get a bib for Snoopy to wear and poured him a bowl of cereal. Then he set him in the chair and told Jenna that they were going to eat at the same time. She seemed to think about it for a second and soon agreed to it. She thought that was pretty funny too, as you can see in the first picture below. In the second picture, she allowed Baby Bunny to go eat with Snoopy so all three of them could eat at the same time. How cute!